photo by: Nick Krug

An aerial photo of the University of Kansas campus in August 2015.

If you read my article about the recently fired Kansas University employee fighting the KU Institutional Opportunity and Access office’s decision not to investigate his discrimination complaint, you might be wondering: How can KU — a state institution — have a policy protecting people from discrimination based on sexual orientation while the state itself does not? (Missed the story? Click here.)

In short, the difference is that KU is its own employer with its own policies. While those policies must meet state law, of course, they are allowed to exceed it — and KU policy lists more so-called “protected classes” than law requires, one of which is sexual orientation.

According to the Kansas Human Rights Commission: “Kansas laws protect persons from discrimination in employment,” and “charges of alleged discrimination may be filed on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, ancestry, retaliation, age.”

KU, by contrast, prohibits discrimination on the basis of: “race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, age, ancestry, disability, status as a veteran, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, gender identity, gender expression and genetic information,” according to KU’s nondiscrimination policy.

Of note is that the city of Lawrence is the only municipality in the state to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, through a citywide ordinance rather than a policy just for city employees. Here’s a story I wrote last year about that — if you’ll recall, it was around the time everybody was talking about the so-called gay wedding cake legislation.

And for a little more related background, here’s another story in which KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little affirms that KU policy was unaffected by Gov. Sam Brownback’s decision to rescind a former governor’s executive order protecting state employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.

• Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.